Just like myself, am sure you don't want to be told that you are not doing your job well or that your performance is below expectation after an employee's performance review. A bad performance review usually creates a negative feeling which belittles one's self-esteem, especially when you feel you've been putting reasonable efforts into the job. Coupled with the stress and challenges of being a medical sales rep, receiving a bad performance review from the supervisor or manager can lower one's morale.

However, receiving a bad performance receive is not the most critical part of this situation, but how you react to it, the information you can gather, and what you make out of the whole feedback.

Have you just been told by the manager that your performance is not too good enough as a medical sales rep? You don't have to fidget. Here is some advice on how you can overcome a bad performance review and become one of the top best in the next performance review exercise.

1. Don't defend yourself, instead accept the challenge

One of the mistakes most people make when faced with negative feedback is trying to protect yourself or your actions. Although you've been trying your best, however, the performance review shows otherwise. Then, instead of trying to explain why your performance is low or how you've been working so hard, accept this challenge and know that undoubtedly well, the manager wants you to do more than you've been doing. Or maybe you should check your sales activities and find out if you've been doing something wrongly.

2. Find out which sales activities contributes significantly to the bad performance review

This is where being patient and being sensitive comes in. Patiently find out from the manager or by checking through the performance scorecard the factors that contribute significantly to the bad performance. Check if your lead response time was low, find out if you have been losing lead opportunities, check your ratio of lead to qualified leads or whether less than 50 percent of your prospective customers have been turned into high-paying customers.

3. Develop an improvement strategy

Why will you spend your time crying over a bad performance review when you can use the same time thinking on how to make effective changes? Once you have noticed your weak points, then develop an improvement strategy for each of the highlighted points. Review your goals whether they are SMART goals, if not try to create a new set of SMART goal as this will help to improve your performance

4. Improve on your time management

Restructure your schedule so that you can invest more time on the right and profitable sales activities. Don't waste your time on leads that are less significant in achieving your target. It's better to pursue a few significant leads that can convert at a higher rate instead of several small insignificant leads that might not get qualified.

5. Seek help

You don't have to do it all yourself. Try to seek help if you think it will be necessary to achieve your targets and improve your performance. Ask more questions from the supervisor or request support from your colleagues who are doing well.

6. Embark on a re-training journey

If you think that you need some more practical training to improve your performance, then its high time you embark on some. You can attend seminars organized by successful medical sales personnel, read more books, and watch videos on how to improve your performance as a medical sales rep.

7. Take it easy on yourself

When I say you should take it easy on yourself, I mean, you should make an improvement step at a time. Don't be in a hurry to see the changes you desire, though you need to set some time frame in achieving your goal. However, you don't have to meddle up the steps together to create a magical change. Be determined, optimistic, diligent, and available to learn new ideas and to improve on the existing ones.